Healthcare Report

Health Promotion Reflective Evaluation

Having developed a health promotion poster, the reflective evaluation is tailored towards evaluating it as a method that was developed to address the alarming trajectory in mental health.  Health promotion is a disease prevention program that focuses on keeping people healthy, and it aims at engaging and empowering people and communities to choose healthy behaviours that reduce the risk of developing diseases and other morbidities. Mental health refers to cognitive, behavioural, and emotional well-being and has to do with how people think, feel and behave. It affects daily living, physical health, and relationships. There exist various approaches for promoting health, including behavioural approaches and educational approaches. Adult black women are the most affected, hence the need to earmark this group in Kensington and Chelsea for in-depth intervention. The Greater London Authority (GLA) estimates that the population sizes of this region are 159,298 and 254,371, respectively. The biggest groups are those who fall within the bracket of 18 to 40 years. In the year 2017 to 2018 in the UK, about 30 per cent of the population had a very high level of satisfaction with their overall life. About 35% of the group had a very high rating of how worthwhile they feel the things they do are (Joint Strategic Needs Assessments, 2019). The regions have clearly exhibited lower mean well-being scores, particularly happiness, and a larger anxiety score than the London average. Most of the mental health conditions are prevalent among women. For instance, psychotic conditions are more prevalent among females, i.e., 0.6%, personality disorders, i.e., 2.9% self-harm tendencies, i.e., 8.9% among others (Joint Strategic Needs Assessments, 2019). Most of these conditions are prevalent among blacks. As such, the objective of this reflective evaluation is to:

1. Underscoring the need to reinforce mental health initiatives in the selected boroughs in order to bridge the existing gaps.
2. Calling the relevant stakeholders to act on mental health as a serious health issue requiring health promotion activities.

• Reflecting on the available statistics and their implications

1. Reflection on the planning and designing of the intervention.

For the last 7 years, well-being scores for happiness, finding life worthwhile, and life satisfaction have been declining for Kensington and Chelsea. Other parameters such as finding life worthwhile and life satisfaction have been on the rise in places such as Westminister, followed closely by Kensington and Chelsea (Joint Strategic Needs Assessments, 2019). Kensington and Chelsea have also been scoring higher than the London average on measures of well-being. Anxiety scores for both boroughs were slightly higher than the London average.

Mental health is important at every stage of people’s lives. In fact, everything revolves around mental health, e.g., the ability to cope, adapt, and solve problems. It also affects our ability to be happy, productive, and well adjusted. The sad reality is that it is a topic that gets stigmatized so often in society. If someone is having a mental health issue, they are less likely to get help because of the shame and stigma. This is even worse for marginalized groups such as black women. As such, the topic comes at a time when all the efforts have to be directed towards this group. It has been long overdue for the interventions to be put in place, considering the stigma and shame that is associated with the group. Even though mental health could be affecting all groups of people, there is a need to prioritize empowering women who have felt helpless about addressing the issue for a very long time. Women are also associated with perinatal mental health, which affects between 10 to 20% of women during pregnancy and the first year after having a baby (Joint Strategic Needs Assessments, 2019).

The mental and physical well-being of the mother and the family environment during pregnancy is of fundamental importance to mental health. During pregnancy and the year after birth, the women experience common mild mood changes. Some women are likely to be affected by common mental health disorders, including anxiety (13%) and depression (12%). Under normal circumstances, the risk of developing severe mental health tends to be low but is likely to increase after childbirth. The impact of poor mental health is generally going to be greater during this period, especially if it is left untreated. Literature-based estimates suggest that perinatal mental illness will occur in 20% of births. In 2018, this equated to 335 cases in Kensington and Chelsea (Joint Strategic Needs Assessments, 2019). Mental health promotion will help in encouraging and increasing protective factors and healthy behaviours, which can help prevent the onset of diagnosable mental disorder risk factors that may lead to the development of mental disorders. The women will be encouraged to realize their potential, cope with the stresses, and even participate in their communities meaningfully.

The approach taken is supposed to be effective at both individual and group levels. The mental health promotion initiative is tailored towards increasing emotional resilience and reducing the vulnerability of the women’s mental health problems through personal skills and self-esteem, which is likely to lead to increased capacity to cope with life stresses and transitions. At a group or community level, the initiative should adequately build healthy environments that will foster inclusive and supportive social networks. At a more advanced level, the mental health promotion initiative among black women is going to ensure that the public policies address mental health and well-being, e.g., promoting inclusion and equity and actively reducing discrimination through measures such as responsible media commentary (Joint Strategic Needs Assessments, 2019).

The above health promotion undertaking embraces a multidisciplinary approach, implying that it combines an approach that involves the various government agencies and community organizations in order to deliver very coordinated programs at the community, individual, and system levels. Most of the effort here is supposed to occur beyond the healthcare system, in the sectors that impact the daily lives of the communities and individuals to ensure adequate support for the development of resilience and maintenance of well-being. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to earmark areas such as prenatal well-being. In addition, the services should be able to adopt a recovery-oriented approach and be able to deliver services in a more respective and non-judgmental manner. Destigmatization campaigns will be part and parcel of the initiative.

The existing policies will back up the health promotion initiative. Kensington and Chelsea have had a popular policy that is premised on social prescribing and self-care. Currently, the policy is even on the National agenda. It works alongside and supports the traditional medical interventions by striving to link people up to voluntary and community groups and other non-clinical services. Social prescribing is a way that helps people to make positive changes in their lives by imparting skills, knowledge, and the confidence to do so. The targeted black women will be empowered to take action that will be tailored towards improving and maintaining their own health and well-being. The health promotion is only supposed to boost this initiative and encourage a more targeted, tailor-made approach to promote the mental health and well-being of adult women, who have been earmarked as the most vulnerable group (Lin et al., 2020).

According to Bradshaw’s 4 types of social needs, the mental health needs being addressed here are felt needs. They are the needs perceived by individuals and are limited by the individual perceptions and knowledge of the services. This is the reason why the educational and behavioural approach will be ideal in this regard. It becomes a felt need because of the social exclusion that is associated with it (Bradshaw, Chant, and Linneker, 2017). People are excluded when they are not part of the networks which are supposed to support them in ordinary life. Therefore, the felt needs point towards the risk and vulnerability of people.

The poster is planned and designed to sensitize society about mental health, particularly for black women in the identified boroughs. Sensitization is a community-wide initiative since the women live and function in society, and the success of the initiative will depend on the support from the entire communities and the multidisciplinary agencies that are brought on board. This will be achieved through educational and behavioural approaches. As the initiative strives to reach out to black women, create awareness, and empower them, it will be able to achieve the same under social prescribing and self-care policy and the collaboration of the other stakeholders.

The susceptibility of the black women in Kensington and Chelsea ought to be looked at as pointed out from the statistics. This group of women is at the receiving end, considering their responsibilities as parents, marginalization, and the stigmatization of society for those who try to seek mental health services. The intervention is to create awareness through the poster, sensitize people, and initiate behavioural change for both the people and the targeted women. The women should be aware of the available services and channels of communication that they can embrace, and most importantly, they should be able to live healthier lives devoid of mental disorders.

Reference list

Bradshaw, S., Chant, S. and Linneker, B. 2017. Gender and poverty: what we know, don’t know and need to know for Agenda 2030. Gender, Place & Culture, 24(12), pp.1667-1688.

Joint Strategic Needs Assessments (JSNA). 2019. Retrieved from https://www.jsna.info/sites/default/files/Mental%20Health%20and%20Wellbeing%20JSNA%20Full%20Report_0.pdf

Lin, S. C., Tyus, N., Maloney, M., Ohri, B., & Sripipatana, A. (2020). Mental health status among women of reproductive age from underserved communities in the United States and the associations between depression and physical health. A cross-sectional study. PloS one, 15(4), e0231243.